Haggai 2:23

In that day] The day of general political convulsion, would be the day of Messianic advance, and of the establishment of Jehovah's kingdom. The forwarding of Israel's spiritual hopes seemed to Haggai, as to earlier prophets, to necessitate the opening of political freedom. Make thee as a signet] the sign of authority. So far as we know Zerubbabel never exercised any real, independent power. He served, however, to embody and keep alive the Hope which gave permanence and power to Israel's ideals.

Haggai contributed but little to the volume of prophecy, but that little was of great value. At a critical moment in Israel's history he said the timely, vigorous, ethical word, and put into apprehensible form the great ideal.